Sea-Eye operation on 20 July: 244 people rescued

Sea-Eye mission 7: large scale operation together with sailing boat “Astral”. This is their report.

07:20 Two possible sightings at a distance of approx. 14 nautical miles.

07:40 Sightings confirmed: two rubber boats and two ‘fishing’ boats.

07:45 Inform MRCC (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome)

07:54 Spanish plane (TransAl) above us. We approach the boats. We call all large vessels in the vicinity; only “Phoenix” (belongs to rescue organisation MOAS) replies.

08:10 Spanish plane continues to circle, confirms they have passed on the information. We calm down the people in the first rubber boat by megaphone and ask them to follow us north (we are very close to the 12-nm-zone). They do. Sailing boat “Astral” is close, but further north.

08:21 We take “Charlotti 2” (Sea-Eye’s rubber dinghy) to water, load it with a Big Pack (life vests).

08:25 RIB (rigid inflatable boat) SA “Carla” offers help; we accept. “Carla” needs some of our life vests, they only have 50.